By NNN-PTI
Islamabad : Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari overcame pressure and enticement from President Pervez Musharraf’s camp and the US to not align with former premier Nawaz Sharif’s party, to form a coalition government with the PML-N, a media report said here today.
Zardari, who yesterday announced along with Sharif that their parties would form a coalition, was offered governments at the centre and at least three of the four provinces if he distanced himself from the PML-N and allied with the PML-Q and other pro-Musharraf forces.
However, Zardari told members of the President’s camp who approached him that he did not consider the PML-Q “a political entity”, The News reported today.
Despite reservations of some PPP leaders from Punjab on the issue of aligning with the PML-N, Zardari endorsed the idea of forging a coalition with Sharif’s outfit and the Awami National Party.
Zardari also expressed confidence that the PPP and PML-N the two most popular parties would sort out all issues to make a workable coalition both at the centre and in the provinces.
PPP, which has emerged as the single largest party with 88 seats and Sharif’s PML-N together have 153 seats with votes counted in 258 out of 272 constituences.
Though Zardari did not talk of pressures from the US at his joint news conference with Sharif yesterday, PPP sources confirmed that the Americans had “brought tremendous pressure on the PPP co-chairperson to make a coalition government with the likes of the PML-Q and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) but not with the PML-N”.
Zardari yesterday ruled out working with the PML-Q but said he wanted to include the MQM in a national consensus government.